Martha Skye Murphy

"Her avant-pop contains so much graceful drama”  – The Observer

"Murphy wails, her voice raw, shrieking like a slasher-flick victim. It’s the album’s (‘Bright Green Field’ by Squid) most exhilarating stretch of sound" - Pitchfork

“An artist in total control of a craft that she’s spent a lifetime honing” - NME

“Murphy is able to tap into the power of the human imagination – the inexpressible universes that form in a person’s head” - The Quietus

Indefatigably authentic, Martha Skye Murphy is today releasing new single ‘Need’. Drawing inspiration from themes of longing, loss and the inconsistency of memory, it is fundamentally a love song. At once fragile and powerful, the track slowly crescendos from a delicate breeze to a dramatic tempest of noise.

‘Need’ was co-produced by Murphy and Ethan P. Flynn, mixed by Marta Salongi and mastered by Heba Kadry. It marks the first release on new label home AD 93.

Accompanying the single is an unnerving and cinematic video directed by Billy Howard Price, which introduces viewers to a cast of incongruous characters, all played by Murphy. From debonair spies to feral figures that gesture towards Isabelle Adjani’s performance in the psychological horror film Possession, the roles in the video mark an exorcism of what Murphy calls “the most feral parts of my being.” For another of the video's characters Murphy’s brief was that they appear simply as 'a mole'. “A mole can be several things. A mole can be a liar or a trick, or a mole can simply be an animal that can’t see.” Murphy enjoys making the viewer uncomfortable with this ambiguity.

Inspired as much by literature and cinema as she is music, Murphy has developed a fascination with other art forms that might undermine the idea of linear narrative. As a vocalist Murphy has a rare talent for transformation, from her intimate, cracked whispers to her piercing disembodied wails that implode into cataclysms of electronic noise.

Murphy is an entirely singular artist, with a spirit of collaboration constantly redefining her work. Her caterwauling guest vocals were a lightning bolt to Squid’s ‘Bright Green Field’, while on her own track ‘Concrete’ in 2021, she employed experimental NYC duo LEYA to mesmeric effect, who in turn she worked with on their mixtape Eyeline, alongside Okay Kaya, Eartheater and Claire Rousay. Most recently she featured on the latest LP from the iconic New Zealand guitarist Roy Montgomery, ‘Broken Heart Surgery’. Always keen on exploring new directions, Murphy says: “Working with other people helps me to constantly shift the genres I’m perceived to be associated with and in”.

Previous to this new single, Murphy has also written an electronic opera titled ‘Postcards Home’, which premiered at The Southbank Centre in London, toured the UK with a one-woman show as part of the theatre company I Swear I Saw This (which she co-founded), delivered an ambient score for Ivan Krzeszowiec’s multidisciplinary film ‘The Late Departure’ and coded a website for its trailer. As a child she contributed vocals to Nick Cave and Warren Ellis’ score for 2005’s ‘The Proposition’, working with Cave again almost a decade later, as a featured singer on The Bad Seeds’ album ‘Push The Sky Away’. In her spare time she writes reviews for the American feminist art historical publication, Woman’s Art Journal.

‘Need’ is the work not just of a musician, but of a true auteur. More news coming soon.